Page 5 The Property Tycoons Newsletter   How To Buy 150 Properties In 2 Years   Parmdeep: But you get people whose job it is just to go through every single paper and document every ad.  You’ll give them the name of the company say Jim Jones Property Buyer and they’ll tell you they appear in The Sun, they will give you all the radio they’re running, all the big newspapers, the TV, everything, even Internet I think as well. Dave: I think you just summed up in a flash the power of networking.  You can reinvent the wheel a lot or you can rapidly grow from the experience of others.  In a flash there, you’ve just given me another idea. Parmdeep: Yes.  I’ll give you that, and it gives it year by year.  So, what you can see, which I thought was very interesting because I was looking at one of the big national guys, not you another guy.  It was interesting to watch how they spend…they took a certain slot on the radio in a certain radio station and they tripled that spend the next year.  So, you know straight away, that’s working for them.  Then you look at some of national papers they did, they actually halved the spend from year to year, so you know that didn’t work so well.  They’ll also give you an estimate of what they’re spending.  Obviously, it’s not completely accurate because they might have special deals with this newspaper.  They might have gone to a newspaper and said, “I’ll take five years worth of space.”  So, they might have only paid half the price.  But it’s a good thing, I’ll fish that out for you. Dave: If you’re not too busy to remember to send it to me, Deep. Parmdeep: I’ve got it here somewhere.  I’ll make a note because I’m quite forgetful like that. Dave: Well, I’m sure there’ll be a few other takers of that when they’ve listened to the tape.  So, I think just go back on that.  I think if you can start generating leads and then learn how to convert them after that. With the benefit of hindsight the key is how to then generate the most positive efficient cash flow model from that as possible.  I started off like everybody else with credit cards, buying properties, depositing and six months later, re-mortgaging and all that.  It was a strain on the cash flow.  Some people went under and some people didn’t. I then discovered an easier method of pulling out the cash in those discounts on day one, which enables you then to really refine your business model to decide how you want to scale that up.  Whether you want to scale that up organically and buy 100 or 200 properties as we’ve done or then to offer it out to investors at a profit as others have done alongside buying their own property. So, I think at that point, it’s really putting the team in place and again the networking is the essential way to do this to find the people that can help – forums help (www.tycoons-forum.com). You find your leads, you learn how to convert them and you learn how to put the cash in the bank as efficiently as possible.  Where you go from there is up to you. Parmdeep: Very good.  It’s interesting that you talk about some of the successes that you had.  Would you say you make a lot of mistakes? Dave: Huge amounts of mistakes.  I’m still doing it, that’s just part of the game. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the past in terms of the way that I approach running a business.  I think it was reading some books….I like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, focusing on whether you’re emotionally led or not.  In the past, even though I’m successful, I think I could’ve been more successful if I was a less emotionally led, for instance. I’ve also taken shortcuts in terms of…I use some people around me who are friends or whatever can have its advantages.  Then you think if you really are going to move a business forward more quickly and more efficiently, then you choose the best people for the job. I think I’ve just taken shortcuts in my business which in hindsight, there could have been better ways of doing it to progress further and faster. Parmdeep: Yes.  Sorry to interrupt, I was going to say one of the advantages of working with investors I found was that when I started, having people who lent me money to do my deals.  Generally, they’re very, very experienced business people.  They wouldn’t get involved in property deals that they knew didn’t stack because their money at the end of the day going into it. Dave: Exactly. Parmdeep: I found that really, really hard, and I think that’s why I developed very quickly because I just had the right people guiding me. Dave: Yes.  I think you did that better than anybody else I know really. Parmdeep: How about from your side, who was guiding you?  What would you say were your guiding influences? Dave: I think the people who write I sort of respected and looked up to at the time in the way that they did business.  Obviously, you know a few of them.  Richard Watters was a good guy.  He has integrity and he has a great leadership.  That is something that I thought that are good attributes to have in a client-focused business.  Then there’s people who I’ve got outside of property who I’m working with now, a colleague of mine called Mark.  Mark is helping us shape our business plan and execute them.  He’s quite corporate.  He’s quite meticulous… Parmdeep: …unemotional. Dave: …completely unemotional. Continued on page 6...     1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16